Hello, this is Hackberry House, and welcome again to God's Word. Father, as we wind down this series, we're just rejoicing in the good things you have taught us, and we ask that you teach us again today. From the great Apostle Peter, in Jesus' name, Amen. Hackberry House is a website. You can go there by typing into your keyboard, myheartcry.net. When you get there, just look for the library page and click on that. When you get to the library page, scroll down to our Bible lessons and you'll find today, I hope, unit 11, lesson 49. And on lesson 49, there are actually four books of the Bible, all pretty small, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 Timothy, and Jude. As we continue our chronological study of the Bible, including the New Testament, We're doing those letters now that are coming towards the end of the letter writing period. Peter will write a couple. We'll do Paul's last letter, do Jude, and then by the next lesson we'll be getting into the man John and the things that he wrote. We're on Lesson 49. On that website also you'll find a lot of studies about Romanism. I've just done a thing about women and their ministry in the church. or their supposed ministry in the church and what the scripture has to say about leadership of women and so on. I'd like you to check that out. Very important topic for our day. And we've covered it as we were talking about the Apostle Paul's works. But let's go to 1 Peter for right now. And I need to introduce both of these letters to you. 1 Peter itself was probably written right before Nero's persecutions. That would be AD 64. From a city called Babylon by Peter. Now there were Jews in the real Babylon. There was a real Babylon in that day. And so that lets me know that what God said about Babylon falling and never rising again, that that prophecy has perhaps not been totally fulfilled yet. We saw a type of it, but it looks like Babylon may still be with us, with Mr. Hussein rebuilding it, even today, into an amusement park, or that's what I heard last. It could rise again, but we'll put that subject aside right now, too. It could have been the real Babylon, where the real Jews were, because Peter was the apostle to the circumcision, to the Jews. That was his job. minister to Gentiles, as you know, Cornelius, and I'm sure others that came into his pathway, but his mainstress was the Jews, as Paul's main job was the Gentiles. Anyway, it could have been there, it could have been that Babylon is the code name for Rome, as we see in the book of Revelation. His mention of Mark fits Rome, for we know that Mark was in Rome at this time, according to Colossians 4.10. The letter is addressed to dispersed Jewish believers, but also ministers to Gentiles, as Peter's ministry covered both groups, as we say. The overriding issue is the growing persecution being encountered in the Empire, but submission is discussed at length, too. Ultimately, submission to God will give believers strength in perilous times. Then 2nd Peter, we hope to get into this hour, discusses internal dangers to the Church, specifically false teachers on the scene. It's written just before Peter's death, perhaps from Rome, AD 64 through 66, or somewhere in between there. This date is chosen because 2nd Timothy is written from Rome by Paul in AD 67 and there's no mention made of Peter. So, either he was dead or never there or not there at that time. So, a lot of speculation here. We're not sure exactly about any of these things and it won't change your life regardless of which way we go with that. Let's go to chapter 1 of 1 Peter addressed to the pilgrims, the people passing through this world, chosen of God. A good greeting there, lifting up the people of God that he's writing to. But the pilgrims of the dispersion, these are Jewish believers in particular, but Jews in general, throughout this whole area that he mentions here. He tells them about their inheritance in verse 4, that's incorruptible, that there is a place that's actually been reserved in heaven for us. Did you know that your reservation has been made in heaven? people who are kept by the power of God. We're not keeping ourselves, but these are people that are being kept, which brings us back again to lean toward the predestination side, lean toward Calvin. Although Calvin is not our source, but he seemed to have found some things that hadn't been found for quite a while, that there is a sovereign God, that he is keeping a people up until that day. He says, this is a great thing to rejoice about, verse 6, but we're having some trouble right now. And he wants to encourage them to keep on rejoicing even though they're having a lot of trouble. You're grieved by various trials. Don't worry about it. God's trying to find out, in verse 7, if your faith is genuine or not. Do you have a genuine faith? That faith is much more precious than gold. Think of it, all the gold that there is, your faith is more precious than all of that money around you. Even though it has to be tested by fire, or because it has to be tested by fire. It's more and more precious. God wants your life to be a praise to Him. And if it has to bring you through the fire to do it, He'll do it. But He loves you. If He sees you struggling, and knows you can't do it any other way, and you're not going to do it any other way, He may bring you through that. Then there's also the persecution, of course, that's coming on them that comes to all of God's people as a purging. Jesus was made perfect by suffering, according to Hebrews that we read. Verse 8, we've never seen Jesus, have we? But we love Him. You don't see now, but you believe. And because you believe, you rejoice with inexpressible joy. And you've already, in one sense, received the end or the purpose of your faith. The purpose of your faith was to save your souls, and you've already received it. You received the purpose of it, the bottom line. We start with the bottom line, that we are saved. We have an inheritance. We're not working toward that. We're not hoping that we can earn our way to heaven. We already have received these things. The salvation of our soul, receiving it already. This salvation that we have, They've been trying to figure this out for a long time, according to Peter. The prophets have actually been trying to look into our salvation. God would speak to them things, like in the book of Daniel. say things to them and they didn't understand. And they would say, what time is this going to be? And who is this? And what is that? And they didn't know what they were talking about when they talked about the sufferings of Christ. Isaiah didn't know fully what he was talking about and the glory that Isaiah and the other prophets talked about coming. They didn't know what it was that they were being told. Daniel was being told that it was not for him, that he was going to be resting during this time. It wasn't to him, but to us. All these prophecies would point that Jesus would fulfill it, but that we were going to be a part of it. Even the angels want to look into this and can't figure it out. And so, verse 13, because of this great hope that you have, gird up your loins. The hip area is the loins, and girding up is like putting a belt on. It's basically like getting up in the morning and getting dressed, getting ready, getting prepared for the battle. Gird up your loins means get ready, get ready. For what? Well, we've got a long walk ahead of us here. Be serious. Be obedient. Don't be like you used to be. God calls you to be holy, verse 15. You've got to be holy. And if you call on the Father, He's an impartial person. He's going to answer. He's not a respecter of persons at all. knowing, verse 18, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. As in verse 23, it talks about corruptible. Not gold, but blood. You were redeemed with blood. Gold corrupts. You weren't bought with something that's just going to pass away. You were bought with the blood of Jesus Christ, the eternal blood of Christ. Indeed, He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Peter echoing Paul when he talks about foreordination. God made this plan before the foundation of the world. If he saw Christ doing what he did, he also saw you in Christ. He knows the end from the beginning. The beginning from the end. He knows everything. Verse 22, Since you've purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, Let's love one another fervently. Because you've been born again. Not of corruptible seed. He uses the word corruptible again. Not gold, but blood. And not human seed, but what? What is it that has caused us to be born again? It's the Word of God. The Word of God which lives and abides forever. All flesh is as grass. All the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. And he just quotes this Old Testament passage Again, talks about corruptible things versus incorruptible. What we have is so solid and so lasting. And this is the Gospel that we're preaching to you. So, verse 1 of chapter 2, just lay aside all this malice, all this ugly stuff, all these things that you used to know. Get rid of it. Lay it down. And like a newborn baby, just desire the Word that God is giving to us. Come to Jesus like a living stone. He calls himself and calls us stones. He calls Jesus a stone. All God's people are stones in the building, not just Peter. All God's people are priests, not just the Roman priesthood, and they aren't priests anyway in God's sense. All God's people offer sacrifices, not some so-called priesthood in Rome. That's what he goes on and starts talking about here. The priesthood, the living stones, the spiritual house, the chief cornerstone Jesus. This is chapter 2. He calls us in verse 9, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. You didn't used to be a people, a nation, verse 10. But you are now. And that people, who are you? What is your nation? When somebody asks you, what is your nationality? Well, I'm a part of the people of God. I'm a part of the family of God. The church of the living God. You don't need a title, as men love to make their names. But we do need to know that we are called out to be His special people. Chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, He reminds them again, calls them pilgrims. He reminds them to continue walking this way and staying away from the desires of this world. You want to be looking right among the nations. When they speak something against you, they won't be able to let it hold up in court. Verse 13, Submit yourselves just like Romans 13, the same thing in 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. Kings, governors, even the police, the ones that are sent by the governor to punish. He says all of that. This is the will of God. You act right in the midst of this and people will see that you're God's people. We've got too many of God's people who want to break the rules today. Yes, we're free, verse 16. But we're not going to use our freedom as a cloak for really something that's evil inside of us. You can find out how much you are submitted to God by how much you submit to man. Honor everybody, verse 17. That's respect everyone. But the brothers, you need to love them. And God, you need to fear him. And the king, back down to honor again. So he's on the same level as all the people, but a truly deep-seated respect for everyone. Then he starts talking to servants, how they're to be submissive. That's a consistent teaching with Paul, again, for those who are in a low class to act like that. I'm sorry, but those who are higher in the Lord, that is, Christians who have higher positions, are also to be submitted. They're also to be humble. But he's talking about something that is so foreign to the church today and how the church operates. It's commendable, verse 19, if you would even take wrongful things. And we're always talking about justice in the church today and in the world. Sorry, that's not what the Bible talks about. If you get a beating that you shouldn't have gotten in verse 20, take it. That's what it says. When you do good and suffer for it, take it patiently. It's commendable. That's why you recall Christ suffered for us, showing us. how to do this. Yes, there were times when he tried to avoid suffering, tried to avoid these things. It wasn't his time, he would say. He was wise as could be. He wants us to be wise as can be, but we're never to be retaliating, going taking people to court and that sort of thing. Just take it. That's what it says. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. We having died to sin might live for righteousness, not self-preservation. And we were healed by His stripes. You know, you can put physical healing in there if you want, but it seems that the flaw of the text here, this is all talking about our salvation, stripes that we were healed in a spiritual sense here. I'm not trying to overlook healing. I know God heals people. God heals people. Write it down somewhere. It's in the Word. But whether that comes from Isaiah, and that it's part of the atonement. I'll let you all again fight that one out. But he goes here right on to talk about sin. You were like sheep going astray and you've now returned to your shepherd. So by his stripes you were healed for you were like sheep. See the flow there? It has to do with sin here, not about sickness. You've returned to the shepherd and the overseer. Notice shepherd is pastor, overseer is bishop. Pastor and bishop, he lumps these two ideas together. Speaking of Jesus, of course. But he also, later on, will show us that he means that shepherds and bishops and elders are all the same man. I'll show you that later. He wants to talk about wives a while. Notice it's six verses that Peter gives to wives and one verse to husbands. Forgive me, but there's a reason here that he and women really need to hear these things again the female population of the church. And what we say to the world, that's none of our business what the world does. But the church, the female population is getting out of control. It is getting very wrong. And God wants His people, His female people, to read this, to believe it, and not try to find excuses why it's not true anymore. Wives, submit to your husbands. Especially if they're not believers. Especially if they're not believers. Even if they don't obey the Word, They can be won by their wives. Now, let's suppose these are believers, but they're still not obeying the Word. Even so, submit. Submit. And when they look at that, when the man look at that, they say, hmm, wonder what's into her. Why is she so nice to me? You don't think that's going to convict a man? I do. I know it happens in my life. When I'm way off and my wife is good to me. Oh, talk about coals of fire upon the head, you know? Your beauty, ladies, it's not to be an outward beauty. You don't have to look ugly, but you're not trying to look pretty. Who are you trying to impress when you go out of the house? Don't let your beauty be the outward adorning. Who are you trying to impress, really? Who do you want to look at you? Why do you wear certain things? Again, you don't want to look so bad that you're drawing attention that way. But the true beauty that God is looking for and your godly husband is looking for is the hidden person in the heart. Beautiful, gentle, quiet spirit. Again, consistent with what Paul has already told us. That's how the holy women of old were, verse 5. We've got some today. Oh, we do. I may be talking to a few right now. We've got some good and holy women today. And they submitted to their husbands and they called their husbands Lord, it says. That's a word to women. It's still in effect. When God's apostles speak, it's an eternal word. Verse 7, Husbands, you need to understand your wives. You need to understand you are stronger than they are. You are very different than they are. They are weaker. That's what it says here. Give honor to them because they're weak. Not because they're strong. The women want us to honor them sometimes because they want to rise up above us. But no, the Bible doesn't put it that way. We are to honor and respect a woman our wife, because she's so weak, and she depends on us, and she needs us, and she's sensitive, and we need to be very careful how we treat her. And then when you do that, that will unite you in spirit to her, and you'll be able to pray together. You know what it's like when you're not doing too well with your spouse. Your prayers can't even be given for the most part, much less answered. And that's what this verse is talking about. And then it says finally, verse 8, All of you, be of one mind. We're talking about the whole church now. Compassion on one another. Love each other. Don't give bad things for good, or bad things for bad, even. Bless people, regardless of what they give to you. That's the standard. If you can't do it, you can't do it. But you should, because in the power of God, you can do it. Don't be condemned if you haven't lived this way, but you need to start asking God to help you meet this challenge, because it's in here. And then he quotes from the Old Testament. Verse 13, who is he that will harm you if you become followers of what is good? We're talking about ultimate harm. Because in the next verse he says you are going to suffer for righteousness sake. So there are folks around who are going to hurt your body. But who can really harm you? Who can really hurt you in any ultimate way? He says don't be afraid of their threats. Don't be troubled. Just sanctify the Lord in your heart. Be ready when they ask you, why do you believe this? Be ready to tell them why you believe this. Be ready in the Spirit. Be in constant prayer and in the Word, and you'll know how to answer everyone that comes to you. Keep your conscience clean. They're going to be hurting you. They're going to be taking you to court. They're going to be spitting on you. They're going to be accusing you of all kinds of things. Be sure they don't have anything. Remember when Jesus knew that Judas was coming? He said, this prince of this world is coming, but he has nothing in me. He can't accuse me of anything. Be sure that you can say that too daily. The devil cannot accuse me of anything when he comes after me. Verse 17, it's better if it's the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. We don't want to be the ones who are suffering for doing evil. Stay away from evil. Don't let them have a just accusation against you. Jesus suffered for us. Look at verse 18. The just for the unjust. That's me. That's you. Jesus is the just, we're the unjust. He did it to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. And then it says, and here we go into a little controversy, I'll let you again deal with this one. It says, He went and preached to the spirits in prison. I've heard this explained many ways. My own personal leaning, just off the top here, is just to take it as it says, that there were a group of people in the days of Noah, while Noah was preaching. I don't know why this particular group is singled out. And yes, I understand when it says he went in the Spirit, it could be that Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, was in Noah back in those days preaching to those people. That could be it. Or that these are some people who died in disobedience to Noah's preaching. And somehow they're being preached to the full truth now by Jesus when He died and went into the grave. His spirit never died, you know. Only the body dies. Jesus is God in the spirit and he did not die. That part of him. So what was he doing those two and three days? There's been a lot of wild speculation about where Jesus went. And this verse seems to give fuel to some of it anyway. Went and preached to spirits in prison. Then he goes back talking about Noah. I'll let you take it from there. But there is something here about baptism that's very critical to understand. While the ark was being prepared, Noah, after it was prepared, Noah got on the ark and was saved. And it says these people that were saved were saved through water. Saved through water. When you analyze it very carefully, you realize that the salvation that we're thinking of, the normal type of salvation, has to do with Noah entering the ark. And it was salvation, or rescue, or safety in the ark. You gotta be in the ark before the water comes. And that's a perfect picture of us coming into Christ, and then the water comes. And the water then is what? It's a testimony. It was a testimony to all the people around. Hey, we're safe in the ark. The water testified, and so in one sense, the water saved them. And Peter brings it out. It's like a picture for us about baptism. He says baptism is like that. Not that it makes you clean physically. I think when it talks about the filth of the flesh in verse 21, that Peter's even saying the water doesn't make you clean spiritually either. It doesn't take away your carnal nature. But rather, water is an answer or a response, interrogation of a good conscience toward God. It's the conscience saying, I'm alright now, aren't I, Lord? I'm okay. It's the conscience responding to God. First, you've got to have a good conscience cleansed by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter says. You've got to have your sins forgiven. You've got to be able to say with your mouth that Jesus Christ is God. Then let's get this person down to the water. It's an answer now, an inquiry according to the original Word of a good conscience. I feel good. I'm clean. I'm pure. I'm forgiven. Let me tell somebody about it. Okay, here's the first way you tell somebody. Let's go down to the water. And when I go down, when I stand there in front of you, before I go down, I'm a dead man. When I go down, I'm being buried. When I come up, it's like I'm rising with Christ. It's a picture. I just wanted to tell you what happened to me. You know, that's exactly how it was in my own life, that night that Jesus let me know that my sins were forgiven. And I called a preacher friend, I got baptized that same hour of the night. It was a testimony to those that were around me that night. Well, down into chapter 4. Since Christ suffered for us, we need to arm ourselves with the same attitude. Let's be suffering also. Let's enter into His suffering. Because when you suffer, you cease from sin. If there's something about suffering that purifies you, We don't live for the flesh anymore. Verse 3, we've had enough time living like the Gentiles, living like the world. We don't need that anymore. That's why the Gentiles think we're pretty strange now. Verse 4, we don't do the stuff that we used to do. Well, they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. These Gentiles who are accusing us now. Well, for this reason, the Gospel was preached to those who are dead. Oh, there it is again, more controversy. Is that going back to chapter 3, verse 20? The Gospel being preached to those that are dead. That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. I don't know how far I want to go with that, but I think you need to know that that controversy is there. I'll stir it up for you a little bit, read some commentaries on it, and you'll go back and forth. You need to know that there's things like that in the Word that we can't resolve. in a Bible survey. And I bring it up only to whet your appetite. Verse 7, But the end of all things is at hand. They believed it back then. We believe it today. The end is at hand. It's all around us. God is only waiting. He's waiting. He's waiting. His long-suffering is so good and so merciful. He doesn't want to close things as long as there's people praying for someone to be saved, people working toward people getting saved. And so, since that's true, you need to be serious. Watchful, loving, that's 7 and 8. And he tells you more specifics about how to live in those verses, 7 through 11. Would you read that please? And then verse 12, more about the suffering. Don't think it's strange when you see all these sufferings coming, the fiery trial. Rejoice, verse 13. Rejoice. If you're reproached, verse 14, for the name of Christ, you're a blessed person. But don't suffer, verse 15, as a murderer. or a thief. But verse 16, if you suffer as a Christian, that's a wonderful thing. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I imagine people who are in prisons for Jesus and suffering begin to start thinking that there's something wrong with their faith, when in fact, they should think that there's something right with it. And don't you dare believe that those believers who are here during the tribulation are going to be second-class people who finally woke up. No, no, no. These are suffering saints going through the fire. Some of them going to martyrdom. And they're going to pass you up, brother, if you're lazy and loose with your faith right now. Verse 17, the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and it's still with us. Judge yourselves. Let's judge ourselves so that we don't have to be judged with the world. Hey, if a righteous person is scarily You're scarcely going to be saved, you worldly person, you unsaved person. Where are you going to appear on that day? And then in chapter 5, it talks about church leadership. Paul covered a lot of the same outline, didn't he? Peter says, the elders I exhort. I'm an elder, he says. He was an apostle for sure, but he's an older saint. And you see, we've classified and codified and put things in such... Look, this is just a bunch of older men, men who have been in the Word and in the Lord for quite some time and that can lead the younger ones. That's all they are. They don't have to be rich. I hope you're not just looking for rich people in your church to run the church. You'll have a good business then, but you won't have family of God. We're looking for godly men who are just a little older. In this case, he was a witness. He saw what happened. He tells these elders to shepherd the flock. What's that? It's a pastor. We call the shepherd the pastor, the pastor the shepherd. Elders and pastors are the same thing. He says, serve as overseers. People just kind of look things over and be sure everything's running as it ought to run. Overseers, shepherds, pastors, elders, same guy. It's all the same. There was not one man who was the pastor, according to this. Don't be lords over those entrusted to you. No. Be examples. Elders are not grudging. Elders are not in this for the profit. And they're not to be lords. All of that's in those first four verses. Jesus, who is the chief shepherd, is going to give you a wonderful crown when you come. You say, wait a minute. The elders, all these leaders, they're in charge. They get all the glory now. They have all the fun now. Why do they get... Oh, you got it wrong. If you think being an elder is a fun job, if you think being a leader of any sort is a fun job, you're not ready for this yet. When you accept the office of a leader of any sort in your church, you're accepting a heavy, heavy responsibility because from that point on, the Lord comes to you And you have to give an account for those under you. Are you able to give an account for everybody that the Lord has given to you, including your family, your neighborhood, the people in church who are under you, and other ministries you might have? Are you able to give an account for these people? Are you sure you want to take on this responsibility? Younger people, verse 5, submit to the older people. See how simple that is? All of you submissive to one another and humble. He talks about how important humility is. And when you humble yourself long enough, God will exalt you in due time. Probably not until He comes back. We can't handle exaltation now. Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you. Oh yes, it touched my heart that day. It touched my heart before my head got a hold of it. A lot of the Word will touch your heart. Then you start thinking about it and you stop crying. I remember just reading that verse 7. Boy, it just touched me deeply. That's how the Word of God can come alive in your heart if you let your heart be open. Be serious, verse 8. Be vigilant. You've got an enemy. He's trying to get you to resist him. He's looking for somebody to devour. Resist him. Now, don't resist the suffering that he's trying to put on you. That's what he's talking about. He resists suffering. Don't resist him. I'm sorry. Don't resist the suffering, but resist him. who's trying to destroy you. He says, you understand, know that the same suffering is experienced all over the world, so don't let Him try to tell you that you're the only one when the suffering comes. It's all in the context of suffering. In verses 8 and 9. May the God of grace, after you've suffered a little while, perfect you, strengthen you, establish you. You're going to be alright. It's going to be alright. Just stay in there. May God be the glory. Verse 12, Silvanus is the secretary of this letter. His name is also Silas. So Paul's companion is now with Peter. Our faithful brother, I have written to you briefly. That's only five chapters. Somebody said the very same thing in Hebrews. Was that also Peter? It sounds like him there, doesn't it? And she who is in Babylon could be, as we said, Rome or the real Babylon, greet you. And so does Mark, my son. Isn't that interesting? He had been a traveling The companion with Paul was temporarily rejected, now he's going over to Peter and accepted because of the work of Barnabas probably. Greet one another with a kiss of love, peace to all who are in Christ. Let's look at the questions. To whom is 1 Peter addressed? Well, to the pilgrims of the dispersion. Number two, though the believers have hope for the future, they must have trials and patience. in the present. 3. What caused the confusion to the Old Testament prophets? The timing of Christ's sufferings and our part in it all. 4. What price was paid for our conduct? The precious blood of Christ. 5. What is the agent of our rebirth? The incorruptible seed, the Word of God. 6. From birth in Christ We feed upon what? The milk of the word. I skipped over that one. That's a good verse, isn't it? Chapter 2, verse 1. 7. Who is the living stone and who are living stones? Small l, small s. Well, Jesus is the one and we are the other. Number 8. Is our holiness as a people automatic? The grace of God causes us to abstain. You must abstain, but your abstinence is part of the grace of God, too. God is going to raise up people in your life to keep reminding you, to give you the desire to have those people remind you. Number nine, should we submit to evil men in authority? Yes, but not to evil actions. Number ten, how should we deal with injustices that come our way? Suffer them. Endure the pain, as Jesus did. eternal blessing. Number eleven, who is the pastor of your church and the bishop? That should be Jesus. Twelve, should women try to be beautiful? Yes, in the hidden person. A gentle and quiet spirit, that is beautiful to God. Thirteen, what could hinder the prayers of a Christian couple? Not understanding and honoring the wife. Fourteen, will Christians suffer and how? Yes, for righteousness sake. 15. How is it that baptism saves us? Well, it's the response of a cleansed conscience. 16. Who are the spirits in prison? They were the disobedient of Noah's day. The prison is perhaps hell or death, the grave. When did Jesus preach? Via the spirit? Was it through Noah? And is He just taking us back in history? Or was it at His death? 17. How is the suffering attitude beneficial to our Christian growth. Sufferers are not tempted to the flesh. They live for others. 18. Why should we even rejoice in these fiery trials? When He appears, we will rejoice in Him. The Spirit of God and glory rests on you. 19. Peter even links persecution with judgment. Why? God uses persecution to purify His people. Number 20, what advice for the persecuted? Commit your soul to a faithful creator. 419. 21, what three overlapping terms does Peter use to describe his peers in leadership? Elders, shepherds or pastor, and overseers. 22, who in the church is required to submit? Everybody. Everybody. Leaders too. 23, why is seriousness so important Because the enemy is looking for someone to devour. You better take that seriously. 24. Who sends this letter? Where is it written? And who is with Peter? Silas, or Silvanus, is the first one. Babylon is second. And Mark is third. That brings us then to 2 Peter. Three chapters in this little book. Looks like we'll be able to, Lord willing, finish that this time around. Simon Peter. He starts out again. And he addresses his letter to those in the faith. And it's pretty hard to pin this down exactly where it went. Perhaps again, Rome. Grace be multiplied to you, as his divine power, verse 3, has given us all things. You know, we have everything we need to be holy and to be godly. There's no excuse, he says, through the knowledge of Jesus, who called us by glory and virtue. What is virtue? According to the The Strong's Concordance virtue is manliness, valor, excellence. It's an adulthood, a strongness. That comes right after you get your faith, according to verse 5. First you get diligent. You don't get diligent. You are diligent. That means try your best. Try your hardest to take that faith that you have. You're supposed to get faith first. add to the faith. The very first thing, according to Peter, is this manliness, this strongness, this virtue, a valor. And then when you've got that one in place, you're going to add some more knowledge to it. Personal knowledge of God. And then you're going to add onto that some self-control. And then perseverance or patience. And then after that comes godliness. And then comes brotherly kindness. And then comes love. You want to know the will of God for your life? There it was, right there. People so much wanting to know, what does God want me to do? What does God want me to do? Here it is. Right here. Self-control, perseverance, godliness. You start walking in some of those things, those other little details about where do I work and all of that, it'll fill in. Walk in love. Walk in knowledge. Walk in the knowledge of God. You will be surprised how much light your fruit sheds on your way. We're going on to verse 8. If you have all this, you're going to bear fruit. If you don't have it, verse 9, you're blind. You can't even see. You've forgotten what God did for you. It's not normal not to be growing in Christ. It is not normal not to be bearing fruit for Jesus Christ. Not normal. He says, when you're walking like you ought to walk, verse 10, you're calling and your election will be sure. You'll know that you're one of the called when you see your life making these great turns. You're actually loving people now. You're actually caring for people and you didn't before. You're praying and you're interceding. You're giving time to God like you never gave before. Now you know, I must be one of the elect. I'm one of his. I'm on this road. And I'm just going to keep going. And there will be little signposts along the road to encourage you along the way. You watch. There will be a word of encouragement here or there. A person. Something will happen to let you know. Come on, brother. Just keep on coming on. That's how an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly. You've already got your entrance because of the blood of Jesus. Your salvation in Christ lets you get in. The more these things abound in you, the more abundant will be that entrance. Oh, what a wonderful greeting will be there for some. A little bit of silence for others. Embarrassed silence, I would imagine. Verse 12. I'm going to keep reminding you about this because I don't want you to miss this abundance and miss that entrance. I want to remind you. I'm going to keep reminding you as long as I have a body And I'm able to talk with it. Verse 12 and 13. Long as I'm in this tent. Notice what he calls his body. It's a temporary dwelling. And it is. It is. It gets more temporary every day. I want to keep reminding you. Because I'm going to have to put this tent off pretty shortly. And God has already told me, Peter says, that I'm going to be leaving you soon. So as long as I can, I'm going to stir you up. Hey, we're not just making these things up, verse 16. We're telling you what we found. We were eyewitnesses of this Jesus. We heard a voice from heaven. We saw this Jesus turned into glory. It was just an incredible, incredible moment. The voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain, verse 18. The transfiguration. He's telling them, this is sure. were eyewitnesses. We saw it. You don't want to miss out on this, guys. Not only that, the prophets, now when we read the prophets, we realize that's confirmed even more. The prophets are more sure to us now than ever before because of what we've seen in Jesus. And you ought to start reading it. You ought to start listening to the prophets, he says. He didn't tell them, don't read the Old Testament anymore. He knew that the prophets told of Christ. and he wants them to read the prophets now. That's the main bulk of literature that they have. Although many of the New Testament books are circulating by now, these letters, some people haven't put two and two together and realized that they're reading scripture in the New Testament too. They know that the Old Testament is true and Peter directs them back to it and tells them no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation. or explanation, or decision, or solution, according to the meaning of that Greek word. I tried to see if it meant origin, as we see in some translations, but it really doesn't quite mean origin. But no prophecy of the Scripture is to be taken and just considered to be of man. That's the bottom line, because that's what it says in verse 21. The bottom line is that prophecy is not from man. It didn't come from people, even though people wrote it down. They wrote it down as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So, don't mess with the Scripture. Don't play with the Scriptures. Don't try to take stuff away or put stuff in the Scripture. It's holy. When he starts talking about the true prophets, a bell goes off in his mind and he knows that he's got to start writing about the false prophets. And much of what he says in chapter 2, you'll find again, in Jude, who copied from whom? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. These are teachings that were being circulated around the church and very important teachings about false prophets. Since there were false prophets in the old time, there's going to be false prophets among you. And secretly, they're going to be bringing in heresy, stuff that will destroy you. They're even going to be so bad that they'll just deny the Lord, Jesus himself. Deny His sacrifice. Deny your redemption. They're going to be lost forever. There's no question about them. Just trying to tell you, don't follow them. But there will be people follow them. Many will follow them. And the way of truth is going to be blasphemed. You see how it's happened down through the centuries? Heresy comes in. People look at the heresy mixed with the truth and they say, what do you guys believe anyway? Such confusion. Why has all this started? Because they want money, verse 3. It's through covetousness that all this happens. The love of money, root of all kinds of evil. Verse 3 talks about their judgment. They are going to be judged, these false prophets. And God didn't even spare angels. These wonderful, tremendous, created beings called angels, the very servants of God. God didn't spare them. They were able to sin. They were able to rebel. He didn't spare them. Threw them down to hell. Delivered them into chains of darkness. You'll find that same thing in Jude, verse 6, about the chains, that they are bound there. There are some angels being bound with chains that God knows how to make. They're not physical chains because these are spiritual beings, but God knows how to bind His creation. He can stop them. Things that we see in the natural are only pictures of things that are realities in the spirit. We got it all backward. Spirit is real. What you look at is only temporary. They're both real in one sense, but one is eternal and this natural is temporary. Genesis 6-2 tells the rest of that story about the angels who sinned. The angels who left their first state, according to Jude. It's the same thing he's talking about. talks about verse 5, how He didn't spare the ancient world. First, He didn't spare angels. Second, He didn't spare the whole ancient world, except for Noah. Everybody was destroyed. Verse 6, not only that, the whole city of Sodom and Gomorrah. And He destroyed all that too, because they were evil. Except for Lot. He took Lot out. If God didn't spare all of that, don't you think He's going to You think He's going to spare these false prophets? He's not. And He knows how to get you out of trouble, too. He knows how to find the Noahs and the Lots of our day. Verse 9, He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust for the Day of Judgment. especially those who walk according to the flesh, number one. Or, number two, despise authority. Or, number three, are presumptuous. Or, number four, are self-willed and not afraid to speak evil of people or even angelic beings in authority. In another place it talks about how even when dealing with the enemy Satan, we say, the Lord rebuke you. And we don't come against these things in our own nature, in our own name. and our own authority. We need to be careful about that. But these false teachers, they don't care about that kind of thing. They think they have all kinds of power everywhere and they just push it out. Their judgment is coming. That's what all of this chapter is talking about. He says they're like beasts. They're like animals. They were made to be caught and destroyed. They talk about stuff they don't really understand. Behind the veil, we don't understand really what's going on. We ought to stop speculating. Just leave it go. They're going to be paid the wages of unrighteousness. What's the wages of unrighteousness? That's the stuff you get right now. You get paid now, then you're not going to get paid later. They're spots, they're blemishes, they're drunks, they're feasting with you, they're adulterers. They go in and beguile unstable people and they take them along with them because of the words that sound so good. Their hearts are trained in covetous practices. They know how to make the dollar. We have them among us, don't we? You know exactly who Peter's talking about. They followed Balaam. They keep wanting money. He talks again about the wages of unrighteousness. They do wrong and they want paid for it. There are verse 17, wells without water. They're clouds just driven around by a wind. One day they're going to be in darkness forever. Stay away from them. They speak these big, swelling words of emptiness. And they speak, when they speak, they draw in people in through the way they talk, through licentiousness. People who had just come out of the world and they get into one of these guys' meetings and they go back into the world because of the way these people teach. It's evil. Stay away from it. If you see that you're into laughing and fleshly types of things too much as you're listening to a teacher, you need to get away from that. God's not honored with that. We don't want to have escaped the pollutions of the world, verse 20, and then be tangled up in it again. The latter end worse than the beginning. There's a warning again. Calvin, well, I want to stay with you, but here's one of those warnings. Like all the way through the book of Hebrews. It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. You say, well, they were never saved. Well, you can argue with that if you want, but this is a serious warning. My brother, my sister, stay away from these kind of people. These are the people about whom the proverb is true, a dog returns to its own vomit. Now, these are the people who are not only the prophets themselves, but the ones whom they have drawn into their meetings. It's a sad, sad commentary. Well, chapter 3, verse 1, I'm writing you this second letter, and we understand what that means. In both letters, I've been trying to stir you up as long as I'm in the body here. I want you to know, I want you to know what we told you, these apostles, the real apostles, I want you to know also, verse 3, there's going to be some people coming around in the last days. In the last days. And who knows where that begins in history. Some say it began right after the apostles. Some say the last hundred years. And it depends on how you're looking at it. But we're definitely got to be in the last days, don't we, right now. Some people are going to come during that time and say, we're just today like we've always been. Nothing's changed at all. Y'all keep talking about the promise of His coming, but everything's the same as it was. The scientists put it this way, the present is the key to the past. Not true. Not so fast, Mr. Scientist. It's not true. It's not true. And he gets into a discussion of science here, and I think I will too. Verse 5, they forget that by the Word of God, the heavens were God created the heavens and the earth. That's all that means. and the earth standing out of water and in the water. In the water by which? What? Water. By water the world perished. It's just talking about Noah's flood. Please don't let them lead you into a wild goose chase about what this means. It's pretty simple. God created the heaven and the earth. There was water above. There was water below. But it was water later on that destroyed the world. We know that. In other words, Noah's flood changed things. Things aren't the same as they were. The radioactive decay of things is different than it was. You can't do radiocarbon dating. It won't work. It won't work. Because geology has changed. The heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by that same word when God said, let there be. This time it's reserved for judgment. When God said, let there be, and He destroyed the world with water, He didn't really destroy it, did He? It's still here, but there's coming a time when this earth is going to be blown up. It'll be gone forever. And don't forget, brothers, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. I'm glad He said a thousand years in here, because when we talk about the day of the Lord, in that sense, one day is as a thousand years. We're about to enter the day of the Lord. In the day of the Lord, it says, verse 10, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And Peter gets on both ends of this day. Because Revelation talks about the resurrection of damnation not coming for a thousand years after the resurrection of life. Jesus talked about both of those resurrections. Peter wants to lump it all together here, and Jesus did too. John is the one who showed us that there's a separation between them. And here, when Peter's talking about the day of the Lord, he talks about first how it comes as a thief in the night, heaven's passing away and all these horrible things, and Jesus coming, of course. But then he talks about the new heaven and the new earth right away in verse 13. I don't believe that's going to come until after the thousand years. And then verse 14, so looking forward to all these things, be diligent. Are you looking forward to it? Verse 14. Be found in Him. It's a horrible and yet wonderful day that's coming for us. Are you ready? Remember that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Every day that He waits, somebody else can get saved. Just like Paul said, according to Peter in verse 15. Where did Paul say that? I think he said it in Romans 2. Verse 4, Romans 2, 4, Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering? Not knowing that it's the goodness of God, that longsuffering of God, that leads you to repentance? God's been waiting so long on you. Don't despise the fact that we've been around a long time. It's so that people can get saved. Paul wrote this in his own epistle, and Peter makes a comment about how hard some of Paul's writings are interesting. He says people who are immature can take a letter of Paul, twist it around so much that they destroy themselves in the process. Don't mess with Paul. Don't mess with any of these apostles or any of the prophets. What they wrote is true whether you understand it or figure it out or not. Whether it fits into your theology or not, it's true. You can trust God's Word. Eventually you'll see the whole picture as it melts together. Verse 17, since you know these things beforehand, beware, beware another warning, lest you fall from your steadfastness. Can I fall from my steadfastness? It says here that I can. Or, is it true that the elect will always be hearing these warnings and will take them to heart and never will fall? The true, truly elect. Again, you figure that one out. Grow in the grace of God, verse 18, though. You grow in the grace of God. That's what's important. The grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Some questions and we'll be done. Questions on 2 Peter. Number one, what do we miss by being partakers of the divine nature? Oh, we miss the corruption of the world, thank God. Number two, how can we be sure we've been called and elected? Fruit. When fruit starts to appear and consistently appears in your life, you'll know you're one of His. Three, why was Peter writing these serious matters at this time? Because he believes he's leaving his body soon. Now on the other side of the page, number four, what evidence does Peter share of the authentic nature of his message? He was an eyewitness. He heard a voice. Number five, what is even greater evidence than the mount experience? The prophetic word of the scripture. Number six, how did we get the scriptures? Holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Number seven, who gives the church a bad name? False teachers. Number eight, if the Lord knew how to save Noah and deliver Lot, what follows? He knows how to deliver you out of your temptation and to bring the ungodly to judgment. Number nine, what specifically despicable sins of the false teachers are catalogued here? Uncleanness, despising authority, presumptuousness, self-will, speaking against the glorious ones whether on earth or in heavens. Things they don't understand, they talk about anyway. Number 10, why is Balaam like these men? They're false teachers and they had the prophet motive. Number 11, what two animals describe the believer who comes out but goes back in? The dog returns to his vomit and the pig was all washed and clean, goes back to the mud. 12. What is proof that the creation is not the same as in the beginning? The original world, Adam to Noah, perished in a flood. It's not the same. 13. Why does the Lord wait so long? He wants everybody to repent. Waiting means more are saved. 14. Compare Peter's and John's timetable of the last events of history. Well, we haven't got to Revelation yet, but I'll tell you ahead of time. Peter says, the day of the Lord comes, earth is burned, and there's a new heaven and a new earth. John says, Jesus comes, there's a judgment, a thousand years, heaven and earth flee away, and then a new heaven and a new earth. 15. What comment does Peter make about Paul's letters? They're very hard to understand, and that unstable people will twist them to their own destruction. So there you have 1st and 2nd Peter. The next time, Lord willing, we'll get into 2 Timothy, only four chapters there, and Jude with only one chapter, and then we'll have to actually go to another lesson. We'll do more than half a lesson next time. As we go, probably we'll do the introduction to 1 John, and maybe all of 1 John also. I don't know how far we'll get in 1 John. But that's on the agenda for next time, as the Lord provides. God bless you today. Again, may the Word of the Lord change your life. make you as you ought to be in Him. Amen.